Message From Our Mayor

April 11, 2014

Let me start this letter by thanking all of you folks for making our 50th anniversary a great event. We received lots of cards and had a great turn out for our open house. It is so much fun to have all the kids and grandkids home and to get to see so many friends. It sure doesn’t seem like 50 years and I know a lot of you wonder how Jo put up with me that long. I guess I’m just lucky. From Jo and myself, thanks again! In last weeks Northern Sun there was a list of several GR students who received ones and twos in state speech and several students who were invited back for a special performance. What a great accomplishment, you students did both your school and towns proud. This is something you will use the rest of your life. Congratulations! A lot of you have been asking about how the Gladbrook Fire and Ambulance building is going. Ten days ago the city council approved a contract for a new building. This wasn’t an easy decision. Our first round of bids came in the first part of March. They were from $890,000 to $1,200,000. The committee advised the city council to reject all bids which they did. The committee of fire and ambulance volunteers went back to the drawing board. Their goal was to reduce the cost $200,000. All of us including myself were naïve on what some of the options would cost but working with the architects and Mike Bearden we were able to identify several cuts. Some were big like the infloor heating at $70,000 and some were small like changing the hose connections to brass instead of chrome at $156 savings and the finished training room, office and bathrooms at $120,000. We then rebid the project. This time we had seven bids in a range of $816,000 to $ 1,200,000. This is still higher than what we were planning but after seeing the break down the committee recommended the council accept the low bid for $816,000 for the base project. The committee then requested any changes from the contractor that might save us some money. We came up with about another $20,000. I know that many of you think this is a lot of money for this building but remember one thing – there is over $100,000 in ground work that is part of this bid. They will have to run sewer and water about a block from the east side of the water tower to a little west of the property line. Also they have to bring electricity from the highway to the south side of the building, about 150 to 200 feet and with a building this size the roof water has to be tiled to the storm sewer. Here is a break down as to what our total cost will be if we do everything that the committee felt necessary. 1. Building with ground work is $797,000 plus $125,000 for architect, engineering and DNR permits. 2. Cement for parking and drives is $109,000. 3. Finish the office and meeting room is $50,000 for a total of $1,081,000. We have, through the generosity of all of you folks, collected a total of $830,000. This money will build the building and make it functional. We will complete the cement work and meeting room as the extra money comes in. We will be writing grants and seeking funds from other sources. If you have a question, please talk to me. Thanks to all of you for your help in this project. Finally spring is coming, the grass is getting green so please check your property and clean up all of your junk and yard waste. I will be making my rounds and sending out letters to those who need them.